"The Bouba-Njida attack was one of the bloodiest massacres of elephants to date, and represented a serious escalation in the tactics and the daring of poachers in Africa. George Wittemyer, the chairman of the scientific board of the conservation group Save the Elephants, characterized the event as a “significant awakening,” involving “a terrorist militia coming into a relatively effectively governed country and engaging successfully with the Army—even, arguably, driving it off.”
Elephants are under siege throughout Africa. Demand for ivory is increasing in Asia: once prized by Chinese aristocrats, it is now sought by members of China’s growing middle class, who buy ivory cigarette holders, chopsticks, and even carved miniature elephants...
The overlap of organized crime and terrorism has become a concern for the Obama Administration, which recently announced an aggressive plan to involve American intelligence agencies, including the F.B.I. and the D.E.A., in tracking and targeting wildlife traffickers.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/11/elephant-watch
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